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Forest Research and GREEN SURGE launch survey to gather information about the benefits of Edinburgh's greenspaces

13 Sep 2016

Do you love your local park? Are there enough opportunities to see nature, play sport and socialise in Edinburgh’s greenspaces? Where would you like to see improvements?

Using only 10 minutes of your time, this is your chance to have your say about Edinburgh’s greenspaces with an interactive mapping survey!

Edinburgh’s ‘greenspaces’ – areas covered in vegetation or water, such as parks, cemeteries, rivers, beaches, and urban woodlands - provide us with important opportunities to escape the noise and stress of built up areas, exercise, and socialise. They offer contact to the natural world and act as an attractive backdrop to some of the city’s most prolific events. Although we can sometimes take these benefits and opportunities for granted, it is important to ensure everyone in the city has easy access to high quality, attractive, safe and varied greenspace.

We at Forest Research are launching a survey to better understand the benefits of Edinburgh’s greenspaces. We are aiming to get as many people as possible who live, work or have visited Edinburgh in the past 12 months to complete the survey and let us know which parks, meadows and woodlands you value for different purposes in the city. We are also interested to know about the natural spaces people avoid. The information gathered will be used by city planners and practitioners to target actions aimed at protecting and enhancing Edinburgh’s greenspaces for people and wildlife.

The survey is part of a European project, GREEN SURGE, involving eleven countries who are working together to meet the demand of greenspace practitioners for knowledge and practical tools to improve the planning and management of urban greenspaces. Some of the issues that are being explored include improving access to quality greenspace, supporting urban wildlife and increasing our resilience to a changing climate.

The survey can be completed by following this link: http://map-me.org/sites/GreenEdin. It runs until the October 31st. Please pass the weblink and this information sheet on to any friends, families and colleagues who are familiar with Edinburgh – we need a large response from a wide variety of people to gain a good understanding of how greenspaces in Edinburgh are valued.

If you would like to know more about the GREEN SURGE project, please contact: alexander.vanderjagt@forestry.gsi.gov.uk. For questions relating to the survey, please contact: chloe.bellamy@forestry.gsi.gov.uk Forest Research is an executive agency of the Forestry Commission. It conducts world-class scientific research and technical development relevant to forestry to support and inform the policies for sustainable forest management of all four administrations in the UK.